The Terri Schiavo case, being a difficult and unusual one (since she
didn't put her wish into writing before she fell into the persistent
vegetative state, all anyone had was her husband's and parents'
conflicting words on what she would have wanted), shouldn't be
treated as a political litmus test.
Personally speaking, I was in favor of her husband's side (as her
parents' side, given the politicization of the whole affair,
unnecessarily introduced religion into law and politics), but I could
also see the point of view of people who thought that, since her
parents deeply loved her, wanted her to live, and appeared ready to
attend to her as long as they lived, why not let them have the final
say? Schiavo herself, brain-damaged, couldn't have cared either way
(even though she might have had a fleeting thought about how she
would have liked to end her life before she became brain-damaged, she
didn't care about it enough to make a living will). I only worried
about what might happen to her body once her parents died (this may
be just my prejudice, but I didn't think that her siblings would be
as willing to devote their lives to caring for her indefinitely as
her parents would).
A larger question of how to reconcile disability rights and the right
to assisted suicide remains, but that's best discussed apart from the
Schiavo case. Hard cases make bad laws.
--
Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
* Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/>
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>